New poll in U.S. Senate race shows steady rise for Cruz

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is well below the margin he needs to win the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate outright in the May 29 primary, according to a Public Policy Polling poll, and former Texas solicitor general is edging closer.

Dewhurst must break 50 percent to avoid a runoff, but the PPP poll shows him at 38 percent among GOP primary voters. Cruz has 26 percent, which the polling firm noted continues his steady increase over three polls.

The poll shows former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert at 8 percent, and former ESPN football analyst Craig James at 7 percent.

Leppert campaign spokesman Dan Keylin said, “We know from our own polling and from our growing grassroots support across the state that Tom’s message resonates with Texans. When voters are given a choice between a career politician, a government lawyer, and a conservative businessman – we win. We’ve just placed several million dollars of television and radio ads to aggressively take our message to voters across Texas. With voters now just starting to focus on this race, the difference between the candidates will become clearer each and every day. ”

The Cruz campaign immediately used the poll to solicit donations, saying in an e-mail, “This poll is certainly encouraging news. We’re being outspent by over 6:1, have yet to spend money reminding voters about Dewhurst’s tax-and-spend record, and we’re already positioned to enter a runoff.”

The e-mail from campaign manager John Drogin said that “we know the Dewhurst attacks will keep coming, but the power of the grassroots is strong. In fact, just this week we passed 18,000 individual donors. Will you please join their ranks now to help us build on this encouraging poll news and fight the Dewhurst Attack Machine?”

The PPP survey included Texas voters and, specifically, GOP primary voters, and was conducted April 19-22. The margin for error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for the overall survey. It’s plus or minus 4.9 percent for the GOP primary survey.